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All this talk about Enslaved got me wanting to play it again. So I did! On chapter 4 now.

Y'know, khaz and Eight Rooks, I don't disagree with most of appraisal of Enslaved, that the gameplay is quite simple, and that it focuses more on story, characters, and setting. Where we differ is that you feel this all adds up to a bad game, whereas I feel the end result is very good. There's a great feeling of going on an epic adventure that this game pulls off that not many games manage. The game contains both some great action setpieces (the opening) and wonderful little character moments (like when they encounter the "closed ecosystem" of the fishtank). IIRC from my last playthrough the only parts I straight up disliked were the scrapyard level and the ending.

Usually people saying this abandoned PoP 2008 in the opening levels. The minutes long with no breaks platforming sequences later on are crazy. The platforming is about rhythm and flow, being able to find the right path without stopping. Once you acquire the magic powers, you must chart a course through levels that are basically Escherian labyrinths. It asks you to be able to actually navigate the level, which is as valid as asking you to be precise in timing and distance-measuring.

Enslaved requires none of the above but I still found it pleasant enough. Monkey's Cloud is brilliant though.

The kind of level navigation platforming you are talking about happens in the tombs in Assassins Creed 2 and Brotherhood's tombs. It even happens in some of the cities. It also happens in Sands of Time and Warrior Within. Less so in The Two Thrones. It certainly happens in Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy.

You know that middle hub area in PoP 2008 which you were collecting the orbs to open the gate? Not the outside one where the four worlds met, the inside one. That was where I realised what a sham the game was. I jumped onto the first beam and realised I had stopped pressing the jump button. The Prince was automatically navigating the sequence of jumps by just pressing forward on the stick. Even the combat's qte system was a joke. The only time the game resembled your words when Erika was taken from you and you had to navigate those four pillars in the desert which required actual thought, actual planning to figure out how to reach the top and not a cleverly disguised rhythmn action sequence.

As you can tell , I played the whole game. There is some of what you saw in the game. The tower which collapsed at the end required some navigating prior to its collapse and parts of the ruined prison(?) too. But that process being automated for me was infuriating. If PoP 2008 allowed the same level of control the Sands of Time trilogy offered with level design to compensate it could have been something special.

Can you imagine? A world of that size and beauty built like the tombs in the Ass creed games or the health power up secret rooms in warrior within? Or the clock tower in warrior within as well?

For whatever reason, ubisoft chose to do a rhythm action game that funnily enough, required no genuine input or rhythm from its players.

Do the tombs in Assassin's Creed get any better in later games? I haven't played anything past Assassin's Creed 2 because SPACE GODS, but I was rather let down when the tombs weren't anywhere near as PoPish as I'd been led to believe. There really wasn't anything there to rival the sheer awesomeness of the Tower of Dawn or, as you mentioned, Warrior Within's secret rooms.

I actually enjoyed Forgotten Sands' later stages a lot, with all the freeze/jump/unfreeze finger twisting.

Sadly not Geebs. The tombs remain challenging compared to the navigation in the cities (Outside of finding your way to the top of the bigger buildings) but they never really reach the level of complexity seen in Warrior Within.

If you do want to challenge yourself however, switch off the hud entirely for the Ass Creed games and tombs. The series takes on a whole new level of attention and immersion. :)

Y'know, khaz and Eight Rooks, I don't disagree with most of appraisal of Enslaved, that the gameplay is quite simple, and that it focuses more on story, characters, and setting. Where we differ is that you feel this all adds up to a bad game, whereas I feel the end result is very good.

This is a similar debate I have with people who actually enjoy David Cage's output and similar games. You can have as much focus on story, setting and characters as you want. But just make sure its a game first and foremost. Otherwise, what am I playing? Dishonoured (And its DLC in particular) is a recent example. There's a rich setting, story and depth of character. Yet, its an excellent game.

As someone who's currently watching a playthrough of Beyond: Two Souls (yes, watching), I'm kind of torn on that subject really. I've played through Dishonored from start to finish and I've never felt anywhere near as involved in the story as I am with Beyond, and that's despite not even playing Beyond.

I can see where David Cage is coming from. The tight control over what players can do lets Quantic Dream create a much more focused and narrative-driven experience. I'd probably call it an interactive movie rather than a game, though.

Video game stories suck. The handful of games that are truly gripping and memorable to me are also exercises in minimalistic storytelling: Metroid, shmups, Dark Souls, XCOM, STALKER, Thief, id/Raven shooters, roguelikes. I've noticed that story-heavy games also have a suspicious habit for obnoxious-ass tutorials...

I will note that I do adore Binary Domain (obnoxious-ass tutorial aside, and perish the memory) because it takes video game idiocy to its parodic extreme, with a dundering lack of self-awareness that can only be intentional. But hey, even then it doesn't shout "Look at me! Penis! I'm a comedy game! Fuck!" because that's the current video game bar standard of subversive.

Actually the port is lackluster, to say the least. It runs well, not capped at 30FPS (unlike that other Namco Bandai port) but there's no graphic settings at all (except resolution) and the mouse control is terrible. As in, unusable

Actually the port is lackluster, to say the least. It runs well, not capped at 30FPS (unlike that other Namco Bandai port) but there's no graphic settings at all (except resolution) and the mouse control is terrible. As in, unusable

My main dislikes about the game:

1 - Stupid motion blur. And not setting to disableit.
2 - Camera is too intrusive. They have created a world, and wen I try to look at it, the camera resets position. It probably kinda makes sense with a control pad.
3 - Textures are a combination of bland, fruity, ugly and garish.

I have tried to solve 1 and 2 editing files. But my unreal-engine-fu is weak. Is probably possible to fix these two problems. Maybe the internet will solve that for me in the next weeks.
About 3, I have tried to install the ENB serie and SweetFX, with much luck.

The gameplay is linear.

I have not played very far, I have the hope the game would open on some type of open area, and I am just in the tutorial part of the game, but I think I am to naive to think that.

Haha complaining about console game being linear damn :D I'm playing with xbox360 pad and camera is perfectly fine. Textures are not great but they do the job. You should research about the game before buying it,soudns logical right ? Shocking i know.